Hoppin' Mad

[ednbarby]

So I come home from work last night, hit the play button on my answering machine, and the first thing I hear is this automated crap asking me to add my name to the petition to ban gay marriage in the state of Florida by pressing '1' or to press '2' if I "don't wish to participate."  Well, they nailed that one right there.

I pity the poor fool who tries to ask me to do that to my face in the Publix parking lot (people have been known to push such petitions there before, but always in the past, it was stuff that was actually defensible, like raising the minimum wage or decreasing the maximum class sizes in elementary schools).  I doubt if anyone would have the nerve in this case.  Nor is it even about that - it's just the Republicans playing their little power games again.

Still, it breaks my heart to think that my son will grow up in a state and a country that is becoming so consumed by fear and hate.

[David]

UGH!    My two worst pet peeves!

#1,   Recorded people talking to my answering maching.   Machines talking to        machines!   What has the world come to?

#2,   Other people worrying about Gays getting married.   As if two guys getting married threatens their own marriage somehow.    With more than half of all heterosexual marriages ending in divorce, should these same people worry about their own marriage first?   

   Here is a statistic I just read.   Two guys in a "Civil Union" who earn a combined $130,000 a year will pay $100,000 more in taxes over 10 years than a Heterosexual "Married" couple who earn the same combined salary.   Yeah, that's fair.

[ednbarby]

Yeah.  And here I thought living in America (at least since the 50s) was supposed to be about everyone having equal rights under the law - not about denying some of those rights to some people because they're a little "different" and they scare us.

[Front-Ranger]

I heard that Massachusetts will allow same-sex marriages to go forward if there is not a ban on them in the couple's home state. So that's why all these state initiatives. Plus the total failure of the Constitutional Amendment bill. You see all these garbage initiatives (flag burning, gay bashing) when an Administration has reached rock bottom. We should not allow ourselves or others to be distracted from what's really happening by these ludicrous straw-graspinations!!

[dmmb_Mandy]

Wow! I've never heard of that before; petitions over an answering machine like that. Press 1 to ban gay marriage!?! It's as easy as that, huh? That angers me to no end! I wish pressing 3 told them to go f*ck themselves.

[starboardlight]

it's a mid-term election strategy. get the petition so that the issue goes on the ballot, which then will get more of right wing crazies to come to the polls and while they're voting to ban gay marriage, they'll be voting for which ever Republican candidate is up for election. I've said it in another tread, and I'll say it again. My rights is being used as a chess piece for these political games. These people don't really believe they can get the ban passed. They just want to get enough signatures on their petition to make it an issue during the elections. A small distraction from the fact that Republicans are losing ground because of Iraq and they know it.

Being that as it may, these people are getting really bold. My brother works for a landscape architecture firm in Woodland Hills, and one of these people called their office. It's work place for goodness sakes. Totally inappropriate.

[JennyC]

That angers me to no end! I wish pressing 3 told them to go f*ck themselves.

Mandy,
Bluntly put, but how appropriate.    Someone should hack into their system to add the option 3.

it's a mid-term election strategy. get the petition so that the issue goes on the ballot, which then will get more of right wing crazies to come to the polls and while they're voting to ban gay marriage, they'll be voting for which ever Republican candidate is up for election. I've said it in another tread, and I'll say it again. My rights is being used as a chess piece for these political games. These people don't really believe they can get the ban passed. They just want to get enough signatures on their petition to make it an issue during the elections. A small distraction from the fact that Republicans are losing ground because of Iraq and they know it.

Nipith
You are right about getting the issue on the ballot to draw more right wingers to vote.  That's what happened in Ohio in 2004.  Republican really mobilized their based.  They did a very good job to organize the voters to come out to vote according to my democratic friend who volunteered for the democratic voters' drive.  The sad thing is the initiative probably will not get passed in CA, but may have a chance in other states like FL.

I have to say that to my surprise (thought I should not really be that surprised after 8 some years here), US is a quite conservative country.  The majorities in the country are more conservative than I thought.  The blue states are just some isolated islands in the red sea.  What particularly puzzles me is why those southern states always go red in the recent years.  It seems the poorer the states is, the redder they get.

[Midnight24]

Wow! I've never heard of that before; petitions over an answering machine like that. Press 1 to ban gay marriage!?! It's as easy as that, huh? That angers me to no end! I wish pressing 3 told them to go f*ck themselves.

You took the words right out of my mouth. It's so disrespectful how someone can put that on an answering machine!! It's like they haven't a care in the world if the person they are calling are gay or not! They shouldn't even being doing this in the first place!!! It's so stupid and aggrovating and...arrghh. Ok, I'm sorry, just ranting, but it's pitiful and stupid to me. And I agree, they need a button to be told to go f*ck themselves!!!

[David In Indy]

I'm going to keep my mouth shut with this one. 

I think it is pretty obvious how I feel about it. I'm a gay man living in the midwest.

I will say this: our country certainly has a way to go before it can  truly call itself "The Land of the Free" and proudly and honestly proclaim things like  "With Liberty and Justice For All".

I'll stop now. If I continue, I'll probably start cussing.

And they had the nerve to do this over an answering machine? Oh God.

[Sheyne]

Wow! I've never heard of that before; petitions over an answering machine like that. Press 1 to ban gay marriage!?! It's as easy as that, huh? That angers me to no end! I wish pressing 3 told them to go f*ck themselves.

I love where your head's at, Mandy.. 

Can you imagine something this ridiculous?

[ednbarby]

I love where your head's at, Mandy.. 

Can you imagine something this ridiculous?

Really.  You know, 10 years ago, I'd have never have been able to imagine it, myself.  Not here - not in this country.  Pfffffffttt.

It's gonna take us at least 10 years to undo - really, put a dent in - the damage that idiot and his administration have done to this country, not to mention the world.  And that's if we don't fuck up and vote another Republican into office again.

And what worries me, too, is that that initiative *will* win in Florida in November.  Hell, we've picked that numbnut twice, now, after all (well, the first time is debatable).

Signed,
Deeply Blue in a Red State

[nakymaton]

I hear ya, Barb. My state (OUR state, Front-Ranger, if you're out there!) already has a state statute banning gay marriage. There's a petition drive to put the same thing into a constitutional amendment... and the damn state constitution is really easy to amend, but hard to fix. (It takes a 2/3 vote to repeal a previously passed amendment. Argh.)

Signed, another blue resident of a red state

[Front-Ranger]

I'm here, Mel. I like to think of Colorado as more of a purple state. There'll be a lot of focus on swing states like this in coming years. I'm looking forward to being more active and trying to make a difference. We already have a Democratic legislature and soon we'll have more enlightened leadership as our long-term do-nothing guv steps down. I want Colorado, or at least Denver, to be, as Jack said, the place to go when "this happens to them." I'm here to give all Brokies a Western welcome! (The way we got in this mess in the first place is too many redneck Texans and Californians moving in--okay all you Texifornians, have at me!!)

[nakymaton]

Front-Ranger - how's about if we just encourage Colorado Springs to secede from the state, join Texas or something?

(Man, the Texans are all gonna kill me for suggesting that. )

(I would say that, area-wise, Colorado is mostly old-school red with patches of blue around Denver, Boulder, and some ski towns. The damn state elected Wayne f****in' Allard, one of the most incoherent anti-gay voices in the US Senate, for cryin' out loud. Elected and re-elected, and we can't even throw him out this year. And CO passed Amendment 2 back in the day. And... well, I'm in a swing district for both legislative and US House races, and I get to see the red/blue clashes acted out in the local paper and in the grocery store aisles every day. It ain't pretty. A few years back, I saw how homophobia brought out the worst in a very liberal state like Vermont, and I trust Coloradans much less than I trusted Vermonters.)

I would say that Florida is more "swing" than Colorado is. But, Barb, my sense is that a lot of Florida's
"northern-ness" comes from retirees from the Northeast (and other Northeasterners who couldn't take the winters). And it strikes me that that's a demographic that could be economically liberal but could have pretty entrenched homophobia. (Like Hollywood, actually.  ) But I don't live there, so my stereotypes could be all a-skew.

[starboardlight]

... What particularly puzzles me is why those southern states always go red in the recent years.  It seems the poorer the states is, the redder they get.

yeah, it confounds me too. it makes no sense, since the Republican party is very much for the rich not the poor. From the "Tax Rebates" to estate taxes, it's all changes that will only benefit the rich. At the same time, Republicans are cutting funds that would benefit middle and lower income Americans, from education to social services. And I don't mean welfare. Currently the Republican run government is cutting funds from organizations that look out for consumer protection rights, taking power away from the FDA or other organizations that would oversee corporations to make sure that average Americans have as much information about their purchases as possible. It makes so little sense to me.

[ednbarby]

yeah, it confounds me too. it makes no sense, since the Republican party is very much for the rich not the poor. From the "Tax Rebates" to estate taxes, it's all changes that will only benefit the rich. At the same time, Republicans are cutting funds that would benefit middle and lower income Americans, from education to social services. And I don't mean welfare. Currently the Republican run government is cutting funds from organizations that look out for consumer protection rights, taking power away from the FDA or other organizations that would oversee corporations to make sure that average Americans have as much information about their purchases as possible. It makes so little sense to me.

My take on this, as much as it pains me to sound so elitist, is that lower- and middle-class folks are generally less educated than the upper class.  They are also less traveled.  They grow up in a relatively small town or city and stay there, working blue-collar jobs.  As such, bigotry becomes entrenched and stays there, too.  I grew up in Western New York, and I think Phillip can vouch for this - it's a decidedly red area of a decidedly blue state.  Why?  Well, many of the dairy farms New York state is believe it or not famous for (more dairy farms per capita than any other state, even Wisconsin, at least when I was growing up there) are in Western New York.  The most rural parts of the state, understandably, are there, too.  I was born into a family of dyed-in-the-wool Republicans.  Neither of my brothers went to college.  One still works blue collar jobs in Ohio.  The other one took some night courses and works in IT for a Fortune 500 company.  Both are smart and caring people.  And both are insufferable bigots.  They just haven't been around, I think.  I keep trying to tell my one brother who barely makes ends meet with his shipping and receiving job and who can't afford the down payment for a house at 46 that his party is bleeding him and all his friends dry (not in so many words - honest!), but he won't listen.

Fear is a very powerful motivator.  And without the benefit of going to college and getting to meet and know a diversity of people there and afterwards, it's no wonder they let their fear (of anyone who's different or of anyone who seems to be "too smart" (Kerry, anyone?)) rule their lives.

What the Democratic party needs is someone who can cut through all the bullshit and tell it like it is without being abrasive and antagonistic like Dean and who can make a real connection with the middle class.  What worries me is that that person is nowhere in sight, and Obama Barak has zero interest in stepping up to the plate like we so desperately need him to.  The trouble is that any person who's truly intelligent enough to run this country properly is too smart to want the job.